Manic Street Preachers

The Plague Doctors have an unashamed love of the Manic Street Preachers. The first gig John and I attended together was the Manics at the Manchester Apollo on the Know Your Enemy tour in 2001.

They were royally pissed off, making for an incredible gig. My main memory is of Nicky Wire in a pink tutu intoning “Brain dead mother fuckers” at the end of Miss Europa Disco Dancer. It was pretty amazing. He's a brilliant pop star, much greater than the sum of his parts, exactly how it should be.

I even quite like Know Your Enemy, but it's not classic Manics. They really lost their way after that, with a greatest hits and the so-rubbish-I -haven't-even-bothered-listening-to-it Lifeblood.

Everyone thought they were dead, but Your Love Alone Is Not Enough was a cracking single and they got half decent reviews for the album too. I've never bothered listening to that either, but John assures me it's quite good in places.

Then came Journal For Plague Lovers, a stonking great return to form as they used up the last of Richey's lyrics. It was hailed as The Holy Bible part 2, but it's a great record in its own right. However, the album's general amazingness was tempered by a niggling thought that here at last was absolute proof that Richey was the talented one.

Perhaps James Dean Bradfield only writes amazing songs when presented with amazing lyrics. And amazing lyrics have been few and far between since Richey disappeared.

So now there's a tour and a new album (Postcards From A Young Man) and James Dean Bradfield has said this: "We're going for big radio hits on this one. It isn't a follow-up to Journal For Plague Lovers. It's one last shot at mass communication."

Hmmm. Everything Must Go part 2 anyone? If they must put out a pop record, there's a few rules we'll have to put in place.

1. Shorter songs. Do not even THINK about starting the album with a ponderous 6 minute epic eg The Ever-bloody-lasting. Short songs work best, Journal for Plague Lovers if full of gnarled and twisty melodic nuggets and it's all the better for it. Verse chorus verse repeat ad infinitum will not wash here.

2. Better lyrics. That means no lyrics about being tired, Mr Wire. Nothing about doing the housework. And for God's sake nothing about Hillsborough. S.Y.M.M wasn't even about Hillsborough, it was about an ITV drama about Hillsborough! ARGH!

3. Get Steve Albini in again. The drums on Journal for Plague Lovers sound great, and I don't usually give a crap about that kind of thing. Get Albini in again, if only to keep military-obsessed mouse-man Sean Moore happy. Either that or give him some Dairylea, he'd probably be happy either way.

4. Bad Romance. I would LOVE to hear the Manics cover Bad Romance. They have a history of covers and this would be perfect for them. Imagine Nicky on the Ro ma, ro ma ma's and then James coming in with an anguished "Whoah whoah whooaaa!!" AMAZING.

Any more suggestions on what Postcards From A Young Man should sound like would be greatly appreciated.